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Once upon a time, David, a young man from Swansea, decided to study chemistry. He said goodbye to his parents, Alfred and Ester and his brothers and sisters, Charlie, Tom, Martha and William, and went off to College in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England.
A few years earlier, Mr and Mrs Wright and their three children, Alice, Tom and Charles had left their home in Coleby Village, Lincolnshire. Alfred Wright had taken up the job of caretaker at the Bromsgrove College and he had taken his family down to live in Worcestershire.
Their daughter, Alice, was an attractive young lady and it wasn’t long before young David from Swansea took a fancy to her.
David passed all his exams and became a qualified pharmacist and soon after he proposed to Alice and the couple were married.
They bought a small chemists shop in Stirchley, a small village to the south of Birmingham. The old photo below shows David (left) with his assistant.
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Why I am I telling you this little tale?
Well last week at the Milton Keynes Museum, among the reconstructed shops, was a delightful little chemists. You were able to enter all the shops and as I sat there……I thought that this must have been just as it was in my grandfathers days.
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Yes, David and Alice were my paternal grandparents.
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My grandfather was a keen photographer and of course developed and printed his own films or plates as they were called then. I still have his old camera and if you would like see it I did a post here.
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What a wonderful story Bernard. I wish I knew the history behind my family.Although I know their names, I know nothing else. You must be very pleased to have that smashing photo too. Kath
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kath.
ReplyDeleteGrand-dad, being a photographer, took loads and my father took even more! The sad thing is, I do not have quite so many pictures from my mothers' side of the family.
Oh how I wish my fathers family had been keen photographers. I've been researching my family history for about 10 years now. My Grandmother threw all the photos on a bonfire in the sixties, can you believe it :-(
ReplyDeleteThat is very sad news, especially as those images cannot ever be recovered....unless you one day come across the negatives.
ReplyDeleteStrange as it may seem, todays digital images are more at risk as many people do not have a back-up.
The old system, with negative film meant you could always get more prints.
Cheers.....Bernard
I agree about digital being more at risk. I know someone who accidentally destroyed a batch of photographs but the negatives were in a safe place.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice reading about Stirchley and the chemist's shop. I used to find them intriguing ... all those wonderful bottles and drawers. I still have a collection of the old bottles, some that held poison and others I never learned about. I have a little bottle of smelling salts that still contains salts.
Do you remember that in those days the chemists actually made up the medicine. None of this 'off the shelf' stuff. They must have had more skills then. Now they just go to a drawer, take out what you require and stick you name on it! Where's the skill in that? I still have an old bottle of cough mixture that a local chemist made up for me. It's way past its 'use-by' date, but to me it's a link with the past.
ReplyDeleteI remember the made-up medicines. Thinking back, there didn't seem to be so much of a demand for medicines then.
ReplyDeleteTrue. We were all a health bunch.
ReplyDeleteChildren walked to school. Lots of exercise and games. No junk food. Just good honest home cooking.
What a wonderful story and I love the pictures you took at the museum.
ReplyDeleteThank you Cherie, I do my best.
ReplyDeleteI read all your blog posts, you know, but rarely seem to be able to find (how shall I put it?) valuable or constructive comments. I'm sure you deserve more than just "Good post".
All your pictures are excellent. I'm afraid I can't say fairer than that.
Photos, yes, I took a lot at the museum but would hate to bore my faithful audience.
Cheers......Bernard
I know you read my blog and I am glad you enjoy the photos :-)
ReplyDeleteMine isn't really a debatey blog to get in a discussion about issues except occasionally when I post about the state of public services. I really just post to share with my friends the things I have been doing. So I don't really expect many comments.
You wouldn't bore me with your museum pics, I would find them very interesting :-)
Hello people,sorry to butt in.Lovely family story and photos too.
ReplyDeleteSo important to know our past if we can, it gives us grounding and a background for who we are.Photos to go with it are a great and treasured luxury.